


Shadowtale

by Maggerwaggers_the_Fox



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: A dumbass hedgehog falls, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Memory Loss, cursing, death mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 00:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11956212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maggerwaggers_the_Fox/pseuds/Maggerwaggers_the_Fox
Summary: Hey. Pssst. 'Cringy' isn't a thing. Just enjoy it, or leave.A story in which a dumbass black-quilled hedgehog falls from space, to the Underground, and runs into multiple issues-including serious memory loss.





	Shadowtale

            **F** alling. That’s all that Shadow could remember. He was fighting… something, with someone he once considered an enemy, and then fell after stopping the beast he was fighting. His eyes slowly opened, red irises being quickly filled with his black pupils as he attempted to adjust to the new darkness. His gloved hands settled on top of soft flowers, the flowers acting more like a large, fluffy bed than actual flowers. He glanced to his hand, finding the flowers quickly spreading golden-colored pollen all over his white glove-and his spines, too. Anything that touched them seemed to get the pollen dusted all over the object in question.

 

            The Mobian Hedgehog gathered himself up, standing fully to look around his surroundings. Where was he? He dusted the pollen off, or at least, attempted to, with no avail. Looks like the golden dust was going to stick to him until he could wash it off. He sighed, beginning to walk in the direction where he saw an actual pathway. His eyes narrowed as he tried to adjust to the darkness, but it didn’t help much-especially when he wandered into a large room with a bright light flooding into the middle. That definitely didn’t help his eyes adjust to the almost pitch-blackness surrounding the grassy spot in the middle.

 

            “Howdy!” A squeaky voice caused him to jump and look to the grassy circle, spotting a bright-yellow flower… with a face right where the pistil should lie. His ears quickly folded back, pretty freaked out by a talking flower. His immediate thoughts jumped to Eggman and his unusual robots, wondering if this was one of them. “You know, it’s rude to stare! I’m Flowey! Flowey the Flower! You’re new to the Underground, arencha?” A wide, friendly smile grew on the flower’s face. The black hedgehog slowly relaxed. The thing didn’t seem too dangerous… It was way friendlier than he expected.

 

            “Well, ah. Yes, actually. I did not even know I was underground…” He looked up, and frowned. It made sense now that he thought about it. It was very dark, and a small, perfectly-round hole right above where the grass was growing let light shine through. He must’ve crashed onto earth after falling… Was he fighting in outer space before he fell? He must’ve, but how did he survive such a crushing fall? There were just too many questions with no answer to them. The flower cleared its throat loud enough to catch his attention, and his ears perked up as he looked back to the strange flower. “Well! Let me show you how things work down here!” He squeaked out, making a motion with a leaf.

 

            Suddenly, an empty feeling filled his chest, and a bright-red heart popped out, floating gently in front of him. His pupils shrank drastically as he gripped the white fluff on his chest. He looked at the strange heart floating in front of him, narrowing his eyes. What was this? Why did it appearing give him such an empty feeling within him? “That is your Soul!” Flowey unknowingly answered his question, at least, the first one. His Soul?

 

            “Your Soul starts off weak at first, but can grow strong with LV!” He seemed so pleased to be talking about this, “What does LV stand for?” Shadow backed his ears a little, not wishing to participate in this flower’s attempt to treat him like a child who knows nothing.

 

            “It’ll stand for level of violence if you don’t back off, flower.” He responded sourly, a soft snarl forming. The Flower tisked, shaking its head sadly as if to deny that was the proper response.

 

            “No no no no, not at all, not at all dear friend! It stands for LOVE, of course!” Flowey didn’t seem fazed by the hedgehog’s anger, forming little white pellets around him, “Down here, Love is spread through little, white friendliness pellets! Move around your Soul and get as many as you can!” The pellets quickly started to move towards Shadow, and a frown quickly formed. The way the white dots were moving, and how he seemed to word their usefulness and the word ‘love’ made him much more cautious. He dodged the pellets, watching them fly off into the distance.

 

            “Heeeey buddy. You missed ‘em. That’s okay, here, I got more!” A bit of a frown formed on the flower’s face. More ‘pellets’ flew towards him, a little faster this time. The black hedgehog huffed, a tiny, confident grin growing on his face as he dodged these as well.

 

            “Are-are you a moron or something? Run into the damn bul-eeeerr, friendliness pellets! C’mon, don’t you WANT some love?” The flower slipped up, and a tiny snarl formed on its odd face. The hedgehog’s beliefs were confirmed now-the flower was definitely NOT trustworthy. More bullets flew towards him, these much, much quicker. He barely dodged them, and he stood up, gripping his hands. “Get out of my way, flower.” He threatened, before finding himself taking a step back when its face changed drastically. Teeth-sharp, pointy teeth formed where its happy smile once was, now grinning menacingly. Its eyes turned big, and black, with white dots staring into his soul, literally. “You know EXACTLY what’s going on here, don’t you? Too bad.” The flower’s voice changed as well, making the hedgehog flinch slightly. White bullets completely surrounded his body, giving him no escape whatsoever. He looked around wildly between bullets, grimacing softly.

 

            “DIE.” The one word spoken by the malicious flower made his soul quake. He took a hold of his red Soul, pressing it against his chest in attempts to return it to where it belongs as he curled up into a ball, completely surrounding his soul. He began rolling in his ball-form, charging up speed before shooting off in a random direction. He had hoped that perhaps, in this balled form, he would not be affected by the bullets. He was poorly mistaken. The ones he rolled through were not affected by his physical body, and instead passed through his body, piercing his soul. He suddenly stopped, causing him to flop on his back as he gripped his chest. The pain was extreme, his chest felt like it was on fire and it was spreading throughout his body. He could barely move, much less make any sounds. His eyes clenched shut, prepared for the horrid flower to take his life with another one of its nasty bullets. One hovered right above his soul, and the flower appeared right next to his face.

 

            “It’s Kill or BE Killed.” He muttered out, before maniacally laughing. The single bullet backed up, before slowly, painfully inching towards his Soul. Both he and the flower knew that it would still hurt and likely kill him even if it was going slowly. Flowey was simply dragging it out, making him suffer for longer just because he could. Just because the hedgehog couldn’t fight back, the maniacal beast dragged things out.

 

            He never expected his life to come to an end because of an insane talking flower, but here he was, about to be killed by just that. His eyes closed shut as the bullet inched towards his Soul. He heard a soft, feminine gasp, and the sound of a flame moving past his body. He felt the warmth, before hearing it hit the thing near him. He didn’t dare open his eyes until he felt a soft paw brush his forehead. Was it another Mobian that lives down here…?

 

            Cautiously, he opened his eyes, looking towards the large being kneeling before him. The creature looked like a Mobian goat… Just all-white fur. Her panicked expression seemed to relax somewhat, especially the sight of his soul slowly sliding back into his chest, right where it belonged. “You poor thing… Can you move?” She asked, in a motherly, caring tone. Shadow didn’t even attempt-he knew he was in too much pain to move any. He looked away as he shook his head.

 

            He felt the female carefully scoop him up into her arms, holding him carefully as to not further injure him. “Well, I know a good place to rest up until you feel better. It’s only injuries on your Soul, right?” She asked, surprising the hedgehog. She knew about Souls, too? Maybe she wasn’t Mobian after all…

 

            “…Yes. I had… miscalculated the logic behind that flower’s bullets.” He spoke softly. His speech didn’t seem to shock her, and she simply nodded in understanding.

 

            “Do not worry, then. You will heal after a good rest. You have no internal or external injuries, just an injured Soul.” She began carrying him out of the dark room, and into some lit ruins. The hedgehog immediately realized this ‘light’ was artificial-made by something else, somewhere else where he couldn’t see. “May I ask… what is your name, young one?” She looked towards the hedgehog she was carrying.

 

            “…My name is Shadow the Hedgehog.” He simply answered, before glancing to her, silently returning the question.

 

            “Ah! Shadow. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Toriel. I am the caretaker of the ruins you see around us.” She mentioned, as she stepped over some spikes blocking the path for shorter creatures with ease, “Once we get to my house, I will Check your Stats.”

 

            “My… what?” These terms, like ‘LOVE’, ‘Stats’, and ‘Souls’ confused the poor Hedgehog. He definitely knew spin-dashing through bullets was a bad idea, but that was about it.

 

            “Your Stats, little one. Do… you not know what those are?” She frowned lightly, her frown only increasing when he shook his head, “Ah… Well, your Stats tell everything there is to you as a living creature. How healthy you are, how strong you are, how tough you are, and other such things.”

 

            “…I see.” He went silent, wondering what his would be, “I apologize for my lack of knowledge. My memory… isn’t quite what it should be.” It was only a partial lie-he was forgetting things about the fight, but he didn’t forget about stats, seeing as he didn’t even KNOW about that beforehand.

 

            “Now, now, there is no use lying to a mother. You never knew about Stats before now, am I correct?” She chuckled when his ears backed up and he immediately looked off towards some random direction, “I thought as much. You may tell the truth, little one-I can tell you are not from the Underground. Your bright-red Soul tells me more than enough.”

 

            “…I see. So I am assuming every living thing has a Soul?” He observed their surroundings, mentally noting where everything is, just in case. Toriel nodded, and smiled.

 

            “Yes, for the most part. Anything able to move on its own has a Soul. Plants do not, however.” She instructed, and he nodded in understanding. This was, of course, very useful information, as his eyes darted to some random plants growing silently, watching them before they disappeared from sight.

 

            It didn’t take long for Toriel to take the black-quilled hedgehog back to her home, and she gently laid him on a bed. She took care in removing her hands from under him as to not accidentally poke herself with one of his many quills. “Alright, I will check your Stats. Prepare yourself; I will have to remove your Soul to do this.” She gave him the warning, and time to prep for the weird, empty feeling, before making a motion. His red Soul popped out, not as brightly lit as it was before the injury. Shadow stared at it, wondering if the cause was from the injury he sustained.

 

            “Hm… your Soul is quite powerful, young one. There are many scars on it from past experiences.” She began gently creating green-colored flames. For a moment, the hedgehog froze up in fear, before the flames gently enveloped his Soul. It didn’t hurt… it was warm, comforting. He could feel the pain slowly leeched away from the warm flames. He felt a little sad when the flames faded away, but his pain had completely disappeared. Soul damage was definitely unusual for him… He then remembered something about… scars?

 

            “What were you talking about when you said… ‘scars’ on my Soul?” He questioned softly, sitting up with care. He didn’t hurt any, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

 

            “Ah… Well, it is hard to see… But if you look closely at your soul, you can see faint marks… like lightning.” She explained, pointing towards the faint marks on the bright-red Soul, “They are caused by extreme trauma to the owner… Loss is usually the biggest cause.” He looked to his Soul, spotting some of the marks on his Soul. There were so many… He wished he could remember what hurt him, but his memory was so foggy.

 

            “I see… I only wish I could remember the cause.” He scooped up his soul, gently putting it back where it belonged. He really hated it being out… He felt so exposed, like everyone could see exactly how he was feeling just by looking into his Soul. Toriel watched his motions, and then smiled, holding out a furry paw.

 

            “I am sure you must be hungry. I can make you something to eat, at the least, and you can tell me what you do remember. Perhaps simply talking about it will help you recover your memories.” She spoke, and gave him a caring, kind look. He looked up to her, and took her paw, standing up fully with a sigh.

 

            “Well, I sure as hell wasn’t getting anywhere just sitting and thinking about it.” He muttered out, before finding himself face-to-face with something he never considered to be frightening-The face of a _VERY_ angry, _VERY_ disappointed mother. His ears immediately folded back and he naturally shrunk in the presence of her disapproving glare.

 

            “We’ve got to do something about curving that language of yours, young man. I understand you are an adult, but you never know when you’re in the presence of a child! Goodness, you’re lucky only I could hear.” She shook her head, before leading the way, “Especially here! The underground has plenty of problems, don’t add to it by having kids hear curse words that they think is ‘cool’ to use. At the very least, if you see that a child has heard you, gently tell them to never use the word, as it means something very, very bad and can make someone really upset if they say it.” He thought back, wasn’t there a kid that liked to hang with him?

 

            “…Funny you should say that… that isn’t the first time someone so kind suddenly glared at me for cursing. Perhaps… If you ever get out, you should meet Cream.” He felt a slight chill as he remembered when he had first cursed, and she got absolutely enraged.

 

            “Oh? I suppose my being disapproving of such language managed to knock loose a memory for you to think about?” She looked back to him, and he shrugged softly, “Well, whatever stirred it to life, I will have to politely decline… Even if I wanted to meet this friend of yours, I wouldn’t be able to.”

 

            “Figured that. If so many of you are staying underground, especially when there’s no benefit for the life I have seen thus far, there must be something stopping you from getting up and running to the surface.” He looked up, noticing Toriel’s entirely shocked expression, “…Nobody that fell down here got that idea until after they left here, huh.”

 

            “You… Yes, in fact! My… I suppose I have a lot to tell you. It will be a long story.” She sighed, and sat down at a table set for three. Shadow took the smaller chair, and looked over to her.

 

            “Seeing as I’m stuck down here, too, I have plenty of time to listen. So tell away.” He settled in for the long haul as Toriel began telling him the tale of how monsters got underground. She may have made a small joke, calling it the “Undertale”, but he didn’t get it. He knew SOMEONE would, if they heard it, but he was not one of those people.


End file.
